Just Say No to High-Pressure Sales Tactics

Thought I'd share an email I just sent to the sales manager at one of the dealerships I was talking to about buying a new 2016 Prius. For context, this dealer (Dealer B) was where I bought my current '07 Prius when it was new, and they were competing with another dealer (Dealer A) where I bought my original '05 (the one I sold to my father-in-law). Was working with both in email to negotiate on price, using KBB and NADA to guide the bargaining process. Dealer B had given me a decent price on the car I wanted earlier in the day, but the quote sheet was confusing as all heck, so I had a lot of questions. Meanwhile, Dealer A gave me a better price with a much more straightforward explanation, and I chose to accept that bid.

So, how to decline politely? When the long-delayed answer to a question I'd asked much earlier in the day finally arrived, it included a poorly-worded offer to throw in floor mats and keep the price below the original (higher) price, and then: "So, when are you thinking of delivery?"

Sent him this response:

In case you're curious, between an in-person visit to just look at one of the cars on Sunday, then the phone and email follow-ups, they threw just about every sales tactic in the book at me. Among other things:

* Gave me a song and dance about their rebates and referral bonuses.
* Another song and dance about how they are the largest volume dealer in the state, and they come out with their best price the first time.
* "We'll give you a great value for your trade-in! We love your car and want to sell it for a good price!"
* Took my car key and registration so they could test-drive it for appraisal, then held on to them until I was ready to leave.
* Drove the new car up to the front of the building and had me sit in it to see if it was what I wanted. (It had the wrong interior.)
* Tried to convince me that car really WAS what I wanted.
* Gave me an initial quote that included a $600 "dashboard protection" accessory charge.
* Left multiple times to "see what he could do".
* Had the sales manager come out with his "best offer", which was actually worse than earlier ones.
* Tried to tell me they couldn't make any money on the car if they went lower than that.
* Offered to follow up in a day or two. (They did).
* Put me through an email chain for negotiations, where EVERY message ended with some form of "When are you coming in?"

In a way, the guy was right when he said that price WILL NOT be the reason they're not earning my business.

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that I played hardball today, and I won.

I drove a brand-new blue 2016 Prius Three home tonight after about 5 hours of wrangling and another hour of signing paperwork. The salesperson at Dealership A had given me the number I was looking for earlier in the week via email, so I set up to go in at 1pm to finalize things. Thinking it would be simple, we went in right on time and got started.

First off, salesperson asked me if I would consider trading in my old Prius after all, and gave me a MUCH better trade-in offer than before. Originally, it would have been around $2500, which is at the high end of the KBB trade-in value for that car's year, miles, options and condition. However, today, he inexplicably wanted to pay me $4625 for it IF I would trade it in as part of today's transaction. My wife and I looked at each other and said "Okay, sure, we can do that". (I was looking to get around $5K for it in private sale, so with the tax savings on the transaction here, that worked out.) However, we hadn't actually brought that car with us, so we were going to have to go back home and get it up to the dealership later. No problem.

Salesperson then goes through all the numbers. He had originally said earlier in the week that there would be a $500 "Prius Loyalty" rebate because I was a current Prius owner upgrading to a new one. When he went over the numbers today, the rebate was $1000 - there was an additional sales rebate on my car! Cool! So we were going to be entitled to a pretty sizeable refund check since we hadn't anticipated the trade-in and the extra rebate.

The trouble started when the sales guy left to print up the paperwork, then rushed back and apologized for missing one critical fee - the government doc fee ($150). Because it was his error, he docked an extra $25 off the total price, but this raised the price by $125. I asked if we could make up the difference in the trade-in value. He left again and asked for that, then came back and said the trade-in manager agreed to it. Score one for me.

The second point of trouble was when he left the desk for more than half an hour (with my wife getting antsy because she had work she needed to get back to at home and this was taking longer than expected), then came back and said that the price would be another $500 because the sales rebate he had mentioned earlier turned out not to apply to the Prius Liftback - only to the C, V and 2015 models. At this point, we were quite frustrated. He rushed off somewhere, then came back and said they knocked off another $250 from the base price of the car ($275 net drop), so now I was going to be paying about $225 more than we'd agreed overall. That was "the best" they could do.

My wife and I decided to tell him we needed some time to think about it and had to get back to get her work done (she's a voice actor and she had an audiobook deadline - for real), but that I would be back later. The guy was visibly upset by this but shook my hand and said he'd be there until 6.

On the way home, I decided to buy the car anyway - the net total was still below where I originally wanted to be, AND I was getting an excellent trade-in price for my old car. I supposed the salesperson could afford to sweat just a little bit for the discrepancies in the price - that was either due to some BS or just plain mistakes or incompetence. When we got home, my wife got back to work, I cleaned out my old car and drove it back, and the rest of the process went smoothly. Both the sales guy and the finance guy explained that both of the discrepancies were honest mistakes on their part - the sales guy was extraordinarily busy and had just sold three Prius Cs in a row, so he got his own numbers mixed up and someone else had to correct him. I'm willing to believe that - the dealership was a ZOO when we got there.

All in all, the base price for my Prius Three was $24,750. It doesn't have the Advanced Tech Package, but it did come with the all-weather floor mats and cargo mat AND the black applique, for free. The only fees were the required government fees - no TDA, no mark-up, nothing. When all was said and done, I paid about $22,500, and I paid cash.

I happened to notice the finance manager's screen, which mentioned the dealer's net profit on the sale. They genuinely sold this car to me for a considerable loss. I have to imagine that they bent over this far backwards for me because I'd done business with them before and it was more important to keep me as a loyal customer - not to mention that my father-in-law is choosing his dealership based on my experience.

But yeah. In the end, I got the car I wanted for better than the price I wanted, I offloaded my old car and don't have to hassle with a private sale, and I have the satisfaction of having won this particular round.

 

Well, true. But I'm given to understand dealers really will sell at a loss sometimes to meet quotas, retain or win customers, or (plausibly in this case) help a new brand or model get on the road.

(Shrug) I'm not a car salesperson, and frankly I'm glad not to be one. I couldn't do that job.

 

MSRP here was above $27K. They took $1000 off invoice, AND gave me $4750 for the trade in. The $22500 is what I paid out of pocket after fees, taxes, and the trade were all figured in. Without the trade, I would have paid between $27500 and $28000